This document is a description and reflection by the artist Shalin Hai-Jew on their process creating artworks using alcohol inks on synthetic paper and further editing digitally. It discusses how the artmaking provided an escape from stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic, social pressures, and racism. The artist explores different techniques using chance and accident as well as more deliberate approaches, finding the materials and digital editing relaxing and an opportunity to learn new skills.

1. Rain
A novice’s play in alcohol inks,
synthetic papers,
and digital image editing…
Shalin Hai-Jew
March 2021

2. 2
Adoration

3. 3
Maze

4. 4
Propulsion

5. 5
Liquid Flower

6. 6
Enervation

7. Rain
• This slideshow is a continuation of the “drip playing” with alcohol inks
in a time of the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic.
• The main difference is I ran out of translucent synthetic paper, so I only used
the white synthetic paper.
• This playing is an escape from the pressures of infections around me,
the loss of several colleagues who passed away from COVID-19, the
laissez faire incautions around me in terms of bio-safety (by the
general public and neighbors), and such pressures.
• There is also the social isolation working from home (although my
colleagues and I do talk daily…and family is close).
7

8. Rain(cont.)
• While I cheer each week’s passing, each month’s passing, the
progress made against this viral pathogen, I also am well aware that
time is passing.
• We all need to make progress on our projects, goals, and ambitions.
• Many of my colleagues have moved on to new positions. Some have
been furloughed. Some have not had their contracts renewed.
• The projections are that it will take some years to bring the economy and jobs
back.
• What was “normal” is not returning. It will be something novel…and
what we decide at each moment now will define what comes next.
8

9. Rain (cont.)
• There are also the pressures of racism and the attacks against Asian
Americans on public streets, including stabbings and beating deaths.
• I have experienced some verbal altercations, albeit without explicit racial
communications.
• In a time of heightened pressures and social rifts, incivilities abound,
including in workplaces…with very little in the way of official efforts to
address the tensions.
• We all try to extend grace to each other. We strive to empathize.
• Social relationships are under pressure.
• Many people are getting desperate and trying various grifts.
9

10. Rain(cont.)
• Works begin mostly first with ink play and various spillages of inks.
• Most are abstract.
• A few include “inherent” figures, which I have to either emphasize (if these
are keepers) or break (if I want a different visual effect).
• Occasionally, I begin with a light visual concept…work the idea…and
see if I have something usable at the end. Usually, a different idea
predominates, and I’ll go with that and make a note of the initial
visual concept for another try later.
• The textual labels often come later, either based on the visual or on a
brainstormed list of titles.
10

11. Rain (cont.)
• As a novice, I see this endeavor as an exploration, initiation,
acculturation, and immersion.
• It is freeing to pursue not what is initially aesthetically pleasing but what is
unusual…because what is unusual enables digital image editing that results in
different outcomes. The initial seed enables the creation of something
different and visually arresting, perhaps surprising.
• I have self-placed limits on the digital image editing because it does not make
sense to put in that much time on a visual that people consume in such fast
and transient ways. Over time, there may be additional viewers. Or not.
• My purpose to learn about the materials…common art…and digital
image editing. My purpose is to play and to relax.
11

12. Rain (cont.)
• I find myself going more machine (in a cyborg sense) than serendipity
and accident even though I value the latter.
• In both digital image editing and alcohol ink-play, chance factors enable visual
outputs that are very amusing and sometimes surprising.
• One day, sometime this year, I will lose my sense of entrancement
with alcohol inks…but maybe will never lose my sense of romance
with digital image editing (which includes AI and machine learning
and so many complexities, even though finite).
12

13. On white synth paper
13

14. 14
Approaching Rain Squall

15. 15
Shards

16. 16
Plate

17. 17
New Season

18. 18
Settling Mist

19. 19
Behind the Clouds

20. 20
Hydroponics

21. 21
Seedlings Pushing Up

22. 22
Scattered Attention

23. 23
Warm Cold

24. 24
Water and Light

25. On digital variants
25

26. 26
Day’s Catch Drying

27. 27
Dusting

28. 28
First Bloom

29. 29
Lens

30. 30
Dynamics

31. 31
Detection

32. 32
Social Fabric

33. 33
Fandom

34. 34
Thorned

35. 35
Bullhorn

36. 36
Kansas Grasses at Night

37. 37
Sphere

38. 38
Joy

39. 39
Moon Sliver

40. 40
Slither

41. 41
Pumpkin

42. 42
Danger

43. 43
Day

44. 44
Discography

45. 45
Visual Acuity

46. 46
Slosh

47. 47
Paintball

48. 48
Bolus

49. 49
Knife Edge

50. 50
Propeller

51. 51
Gridded Worlds

52. 52
Downpour

53. 53
Grift

54. 54
Waterfall

55. 55
Neckrest

56. 56
Inputs / Outputs

57. 57
Palette and Brush

58. 58
Beach Find

59. 59
Bear Country

60. 60
Echoic

61. 61
Splash

62. 62
Dragonfly

63. 63
Unfolding

64. 64
In the Garden